It may be observed,
in passing, that water-transport was by far the most effective kind, in a
country that did not possess a single pack-horse, cart-horse, cart or any other
land-vehicle, nor any creature that could take the horse's place.
Everyday a thousand
men were employed in the cleaning of the public thoroughfares, which they swept
and washed with such care that according to one witness you could walk about
without fearing for your feet any more
than you would for your hands.
A boy-child was
dedicated to war at his birth. His
umbilical cord was buried together with a shield and some little arrows, and in
a set speech he was told that he had come into this world to fight.
One of the most
frequently-mentioned crimes of sorcery consisted of theft -- fifteen or twenty
magicians would combine to rob a family.
They would come to the door by night, and by means of certain charms
they would strike the people of the house motionless. "It was as if they were all dead, and
yet they heard and saw everything that happened".
There was military
service; although no Mexican thought of this as a burden, but rather as
something that was both an honour and a religious rite.
All children were
born free, including those both of whose parents were slaves. No inherited shame was attached to this
state; and the emperor Itzcoatl, one of the greatest in Mexican history, was
the son of a slave-woman.
Any slave who was
about to be sold could try to regain his liberty: if he escaped from the
market, nobody except his master and his master's son might stop him without
being enslaved himself; and if once he succeeded in getting into the palace the
royal presence instantly released him from all bonds and he was a free man.
A royal household
would consume no fewer than a hundred turkeys daily.
Sacrifice was a
sacred duty towards the sun and a necessity for the welfare of men: without it
the very life of the world would stop.
Every time that a priest on the top of a pyramid held up the bleeding
heart of a man and then placed it in the quauhxicalli the disaster that
perpetually threatened to fall upon the world was postponed once more.
The custom of
staining one's teeth black or red was general among the Huaxtecs and the Otomi,
and some Mexican women had taken to it.
Law and court cases
had a large place in everyday life. The
Indians were of a litigious nature, and they kept the lawyers busy.
The Mexicans had the
reputation, even among their near neighbours -- those of Texcoco, for example,
of being so religious that it was impossible to know how many gods they
honoured.
In 1511 the Aztecs
took the fortified town of Icpatepec on the top of a precipitous mountain by
climbing the cliffs with ladders that were made on the spot.
